Renaissance or rebellion? The new wave of German brewing

That one made my day! So typical -- you could probably turn the whole story around 180° with someone in Düsseldorf and a Kölsch!

 

Tony, I am convinced from this thread that you are the only person in Germany who would like to go to his local beer store and be able to buy a variety of German beers (e.g., a Kellerbier, an Alt, a Kolsch, etc.).

If it is indeed true that you are the only person who has this interest then it is true that the GABC that I postulated will not be a successful business.

It seems to me that Germany needs more Tony’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prost!

 

It's story time with Pancake!
I recently went to a bar that has a broad selection of beers compared to most other german bars, they carry the whole Hatz-Moninger lineup (local brewery, but their beer isn't very interesting) and Guinness, Kilkenny etc..
I was surprised to see a small sign on the table that said:
"NEUNEUNEUNEU!!!!
Coffee-Beer"
I was curious and asked the waiter more about the beer, she didn't even know which brewery made it, so I just ordered one to see what it was. 10% of me really thought they might have an actual Coffee stout (or other coffee beer), 90% of me doubted that anything like that would ever be made by any of the local breweries.
Surprise surprise, I got a small bottle of a weird brownish and incredibly sweet piss that had some notes of coffee, but no beer taste at all.
I was very disappointed by Hatz-Moninger (again)
Quite naïve of me to think I'd get a "real coffee beer", isn't it?

Anyway, I've come to the point that I won't drink Hoepfner or Hatz-Moninger, even if I get it for free.
I'm pretty much used to seeing breweries announce "Spezial-Sud" and "new beers" and then being disappointed because it's just another boring beer with a label that says "NEWNEWNEW"

Anyone with similar experiences?

 

I think want I'm hoping for is what a lot of educated people who've refined their palates in food and beer now want to do with beer. It's a more a matter of ignorance and a lack of experience than anything else, IMO. I promise it will happen. It won't happen like it did in the US, but it will happen on a similar course. Just since 2008 in Germany, I see so many parallels to what happened in the US. Maybe y'all don't understand me. I love the best of German beers, but I find it limiting since I've been out in that wide world and seen stuff. Every once in a while, I crave a German style, but I hate if I had to ONLY drink that. Luckily, I homebrew and we have the internet.

Something struck me today... Pax Bräu, my fav as y'all should know by now, is in the heart of Franken, in a Kaff, but he's going gangbusters and hugely successful following exactly the model I propose: tweaks on German styles with a huge emphasis on quality, i.e. a helles doppelbock with hops from NZ, USA & GB mixed, and marketing that point heavily, and then also adding one offs once a month of very innovative and unusual beers. THEN, use cool graphics from a hot young comic artist to design your stuff, THEN market on Facebook to up the hype and keep the people feeling they're in the know of a secret, THEN, use the internet to distribute and get new customers... you get the point, I hope. He sells out of almost every beer he has. Also, he limits the amount of production, allowing him to charge significantly higher prices. He, Camba Bavaria and others are the craft beer movement in Germany, as am I...hehehehe.

 

I love to have a variety of german beers in stores as well.
In the stores here you may have luck finding different Bocks and a lot of Weizens, but Kölsch and Alt are pretty much limited to only one or two different ones (if at all). Sometimes I can buy a few bottles of Schlenkerla (although 2€ a bottle min.), but good luck finding things like Gose here

But GABC sounds lovely
To whom should I send my application for a job as a brewer?

 

“But GABC sounds lovely” I am glad that you like the idea.

All of the other posters crapped all over the idea of GABC except for Tony since he has the vision to see a better future!

Good for you two guys!!!!

Prost!

 

Camba Bavaria is currently my favourite german brewery!
I really love how they brew traditional german styles as well as american and english styles. Haven't had a single disappointing beer from them so far
I'd really like to see a brewery brewing spot on german beers like Böcke, Weizen and Pilsners (Alt and Kölsch too), but also brew experimental and american and english beers as well. (Camba Bavaria is close to that in my opinion) But I think Germany is not ready for experimental brews yet, even fruit or spices in a brew would probably be frowned upon!
Let's see what I'll be doing in 10 years

 

I had a couple of Cambra's at BKL and loved their beers!!!

 

Tony, let’s do what Scott suggests: .”I think you need to start a brewery. EDIT: you and Jack can go in together.”

We can do wild things like dry hop the beers we make. Woo-Hoo!

Prost!

 

Dry hopping is really interesting in my opinion!
Although it might not be very traditional I'd really love to see some german styles using dry hopping, I'm thinking about a Pilsner that gets a good amount of raw hop aromas from traditional german hops.
I can imagine a Saazer dry hop (although that would rather be a czech Pilsner) giving lovely hop aromas!

 

Somebody’s been feeding me bad information: “Hops allowed in kettle only (i.e., no dry
hopping)”.

I think I have been Punk’d!

Prost!

 

I dry hop my homebrewed Classic American Pilsners with Hallertau Mittelfruh hops and the aroma/flavor is glorious.

A CAP is sort of a German style beer; it is a beer that the immigrant German Brewers made in the America before Prohibition (tailored to utilize indigenous ingredients but imported hops too).

Prost!

Edit: I also dry hop my homebrewed Bohemian Pilsners with Saaz hops and that aroma/flavor is great too!

 

Most german Pilsners lack hops flavours in my opinion, I am really keen on trying a dry hopped Pilsner, unfortunately I can't reach lager fermentation temperatures for homebrewing here, otherwise I probably would have done something like this already
Does it really work out that well with the Mittelfrüh? I can imagine the Saazer very well, but the Mittelfrüh always seemed a little bit bland to me!
May I ask how long you dry hop the beers?

Cheers!

 

“May I ask how long you dry hop the beers?” I dry hop with 1.5 ounces of pellet hops for the duration of the lagering phase (which is 6 weeks for me). I don’t monitor my beers during lagering. I would guess (and it is only a guess) that the vast majority of the hops drop out in about 1-2 weeks.

Prost!

 

This sentence needs to happen more as far as I'm concerned.


I once bought a case of Moninger Export that was on sale. At first I didn't think it was anything special, but by the end of the case I actually came to appreciate it. I kind of enjoy Hoepfner actually. We have one of their porters in the fridge. I'll report back. Their pils is OK in my book.

 

I feel like my opinion was either misunderstood or misrepresented. I wasn't crapping on your idea, I just didn't think it would be accepted by the typical German beer consumer for the reasons I outlined. That's not to say I personally would or would not enjoy the beers.

Also, I'd like to add that diversity in the beer store is something Boddhitree and I do agree on, actually. I would love to see more UK and Belgian beers being sold over here, as well as other European craft beers, and more Alts/Kölsch/Gose/Rauchbiers, etc. The more the merrier, I think. I did say that I could easily live off of nothing but German beers, and that's true, but that doesn't mean I don't like the other beers as well.

I do think it's important to understand, though, that German beer in and of itself is not boring in my opinion. German beer stores, on the other hand, can be very boring indeed.